Dec, 2009 Contest: This holiday season will you be giving homemade or store-bought gifts? If homemade, what will you be making?

Congratulations to our contest winner!
Cindy Abernathy of Midvale, UT

I made homemade gifts this year. Being unemployed for the last two years, I have next to no funds. But I did have plenty of paper and ribbons and a hole punch!

I decided to make a printed “cookbook” for homemade cleaners and beauty products. I researched the web for the best recipes, then printed them all up using my printer. I cut out the recipes into different shapes, then glued them to colored construction paper. There were recipes for homemade toothpaste, glass cleaner, homemade “oxyclean,” and my favorite: Coffee Flavored Coconut Body Oil. None required “fancy” or hard-to-find ingredients.

Finally, I punched a hole in the pages at one corner, tied them together with ribbon, and made very sweet little kitchen cookbooks. They were well-received, and everyone commented that they heard they could make these kinds of things, yet had never seen the actual recipes in a format that made it so easy to try.

We tried to keep as many traditions as possible, like making toffee and cookies and having family over Christmas Eve for chili and cherry cream cheese pie. It was a lovely Christmas and I think we did a good job of making due in a tough situation, without breaking the bank.

I hope next year we will be in our new house, so that we can share old traditions and make new ones together.